Mina never had a lot of friends. She was naturally shy and not talkative, sometimes to the point where other children thought she despises everyone and they didn’t want to talk to her. She never did anything bad to them, her level of panic when surrounded by people that asked a lot of questions just went up and she was so afraid to open , that just kept silent.

 Instead of a huge group of friends that her parents destined for her due to her looks, she was more comfortable alone in her room with all the PC games and TV. No one wanted to force the little Mina to come out of her bubble.

 So, she never had people she could indeed call friends. There were some acquaintances of her, but they never were promoted to the ones Mina would share her secrets with.

 The first person that interested her was a girl in her class when she was still in middle school. She sat just a desk ahead of Mina and sometimes when she was helping the teacher with collecting homework, she smiled at the lonely girl. For Mina, it was love. She wasn’t sure about her preference, the things she learnt when she saw two girls kissing in a game. But she kind of guessed that she didn’t like boys the way other girls do. When her classmates squealed over a picture of an idol boy group that will release a new album, Mina was only interested in their music but not, as most of the girls, in the perfect bodies and shining smiles.

 This way she learnt that she might romantically like girls. And that’s why she was flustered every time her classmate smiled at her or called her name. In this situation, you should usually approach the person and express your feelings but Mina knew that it’s equivalent to social suicide. She was well aware that this girl likes boys and just would be disgusted with Mina’s confession.

 Still, the feelings were circling in her until one day that she heard a conversation. The group of popular girls and boys liked to gather in the little garden the school had and eat there. Mina was just passing in the hall near it. All the windows were opened and the noise of them talking was clear. She glanced outside noticing her classmate flipping the magazine.

 “That Mina girl is pretty but she never talks and looks at you with such anger.” One of the boys commented.
 “Don’t mind her. Her daddy is a famous surgeon. We are not rich enough for her.” Someone said and they all laughed.
 “But Yumi is very friendly with her, right?”

 Mina listened with her heart loudly bumping. This was the moment her object of admiration could say something about her. Maybe she likes Mina, maybe she thinks Mina is pretty, just something.

 “Arh, the teacher just asked me to look after her. He thinks this can help her to socialize. It so bothersome to always be friendly to that showoff.”

 That day Mina learnt that heartbreak might be painful than most of the things in life. When she came home she cried and swore that she would never fall in love again.

 However, the promise was broken in high school. Nothing much changed. Surprisingly lots of her classmates went to the same school and no one wanted to befriend Mina. Well, she was still comfortable that way, so it wasn’t a big problem.

 The problems started when in her second year in high school she met an angel. She had heard the school going wild about the new students and the predicted next star of the basketball team. But Mina never met that girl and wasn’t really interested in all the talks. However, once she was the last to leave due to her walking around the school and teacher asked her to bring some documents to the classroom.

She was lazily strolling with papers in her hands when suddenly on the stairs her foot made a wrong move and she tripped. She only saw a group of girls getting upstairs and their terrified faces as Mina was falling right at them. And then the hit, all the papers falling on the floor, the world spinning.

 She opened her eyes to find herself on top of the most beautiful girl she ever saw. Her eyes closed and the face tensed in pain, her arms tightly wrapping around Mina and holding her still.

 “Oh my god, Tzuyu, you’re okay?” Someone screamed in panic.

 Mina was tapped on the shoulder from the other side and went face to face with a long-haired girl with a soft smile. She asked if Mina was fine and helped her to get up while the other two were all over the beauty who now held on the back of her head.

 Mina felt bad, the hit must be really painful. She tried to approach but the girl that helped her held her hand and shook the head, asking to wait. She went closer and grasped the girls head weirdly shaking it a little.

 The unknown girl soon opened her eyes looking around still feeling pain. Mina was struck at how beautiful her eyes were. Only now she noticed that the girl wore a sports uniform.

 “You okay, Tzu?”
 “I’m fine. It’s okay.”

 They helped her to get up and now the beauty was staring right at Mina with a little frown. As Mina was choosing words to apologize, the girl just bent back to collect all the papers.

 “You must be careful on stairs. I hope you’re fine?” She raised eyes at her and smiled a little.

 The cupid’s arrow struck right in Mina’s heart. She just froze on her spot, not knowing what to say or do, until the papers were handed to her and the girls left.

 Only on the next day, Mina learnt that the girl she hurt was Tzuyu – the one the whole school was rambling about. And due to a concussion, she couldn’t participate in a very expected basketball match. Luckily, no one knew who caused the injury and Mina wasn’t blamed for the loss of their team.

 Since that day Mina was head over heels for that girl. Tzuyu was the person that Mina wanted to be – social, with a group of friends always circling by her side, smiley and always happy and positive about things. But at the same time, she felt that it must be hard for her to always look perfect. Her mother was the owner of a famous clinic and some students bad mouthed about her.

 Mina noticed that she liked to stay late on Tuesdays. Tzuyu went to the school’s gym since it was empty and was playing basketball on her own. It was relieving her stress maybe. Being in the presence of herself, without smiles and perfect image.

 “Come out, little sneak.”

 Mina jerked when the girl shouted. How did she notice? Mina was extra careful this time while sneaking in.

 She got up and stepped forward, hanging head low. It was embarrassing being caught like that. She slowly lifted her head and was met with an amused smirk and shining eyes.

 “It would be nice if you just say hi instead of spying on me.”

 Tzuyu turned around and threw a three-pointer. The ball bounced from the ground and lazily the taller one went to get it. Mina awkwardly shuffled in her spot. She was afraid to say something but she couldn’t run away. She glanced at Tzuyu again, fighting with her inner fears. She pulled harder on the long sleeves of her jacket, hiding hands, her habit when she was nervous.

 “H-hi.” She squeezed out of herself.

 Her cheeks went red when the voice cracked and the sound was barely audible. She almost ran away ready to sob in the corner blaming her stupid character and how embarrassed she is. But the ball slowly rolled to her and when she lifted her head, Tzuyu was smiling again.

 “Do you know how to play?”

 They were spending Tuesday evenings there, playing with a ball or talking. Mina found it wasn’t really hard to keep the conversation alive when you talk about something interesting. Tzuyu was her first real friend in this school and Mina cherished their time a lot.

 However, she knew she was in love. Her heart was skipping a beat every time they met in hallways and Tzuyu stopped by to ask her about a day. She was a little afraid of Tzuyu’s friends, especially when they studied her from head to toes but it felt so nice to share a moment with Tzuyu, hear her voice and look into her eyes.

 Once when they were in the gym seating on the floor and laughing about the teachers’ funny nicknames, the door opened and Tzuyu’s best friends went in. Mina instantly felt insecure again. She wanted to hide behind something to wait for them to leave.

 The smallest of the three bumped fists with Tzuyu. She flopped on the floor near and opened a backpack taking out the sandwiches and drinks on the floor. Then the other one did the same greeting and sat near. The third tall girl ruffled Tzuyu’s hair and joined them. Mina felt excluded from the circle when they all were fussing about food. She went into her emotionless scared mood.

 “Mina-rin.” Tzuyu emphasized rin and bumped shoulders with her. “What do you want?”

 She got to choose first, then others took what was remaining.

 “Mina, there are my best friends – Chaeyoung, Dahyun and Jeongyeon.” She pointed at each of them and the girls gave her a warm smile.

 She relaxed.

 “And this is my stalker number one – Mina.”

 She almost spilt the food out. A piece stuck in making her cough hard. Tzuyu patted her back giggling. The others watched the interaction with interest. Mina caught Jeongyeon’s foxy eyes on herself. And made sure to avoid contact for the rest of the time. She was more embarrassed to learn that Tzuyu understood her inner intentions of not only befriending the younger girl. It was making her cheeks burn as Tzuyu’s hand linger on her back longer than it should.

 To her surprise, Tzuyu’s friends were indeed nice and super friendly, though huge crackheads. A few weeks later when they all gathered together in the gym, she was left with Jeongyeon on the benchers watching two midgets trying their best to steal a ball from Tzuyu. Jeongyeon cracked some weird jokes and Mina giggled finding it funny.

 “So, miss stalker, tell me your intentions.” She blurted out when the other girls were practically wrestling.

 Mina glanced at her but the girl kept looking at the funny scene before them with a smile as if she didn’t just ask Mina if she liked Tzuyu.

 “I don’t have …”
 “Liar.” Jeongyeon chuckled. “It’s all written on your face.”

 They went silent for a moment only the grunts from the three best friends heard in the gym. Mina jerked when her interlocutor suddenly got up.

 “When it comes to loving someone, you better say it to the person and regret it rather than keeping num and regretting. Am I right?”

 Her soft eyes looked at Mina and a friendly smile complemented the face. She didn’t wait for an answer, spinning instead and making a way to stop the fight that Tzuyu definitely was winning.

 Mina confessed a week later in the same gym when they were alone. Tzuyu was resting on the floor on Mina’s right. Her beautiful face sweaty and tired eyes closed. Mina watched her with interest. Just two months passed since they first talked in this gym but the girl occupied a huge place in Mina’s heart. If Tzuyu didn’t like girls then the friendship they made will be ruined. But Jeongyeon encouraged her to tell about the feelings that grew in her. Was it considered as an answer to the question of whether Tzuyu liked girls?

 Suddenly Mina felt that she was leaning in. She stopped halfway but when the sun rays touched Tzuyu’s face, something fluttered in Mina and she closed her eyes.

 When their lips met the foreign feeling of softness made her shiver. Mina found it hard to move her lips when Tzuyu showed no reaction. She couldn’t possibly be sleeping, right? The heart drummed on the ribs and ringed in ears. Mina felt her face burning. She felt so embarrassed and pulled away slightly. She hoped Tzuyu indeed was asleep and will never remember this moment.

 She was backing away when her head met resistance. A hand grabbed behind her head and pulled her. She was only able to notice a sly smirk when their lips met again.